Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-04-18
Breezes Blown from Boston.
ESPECIAL coRREsPnsDENr or THE NoSTToRl
Boston. Aprd 10, 1887.

renglOuS freedom themselves, ana TO
permit others to do so, if they wor-
shipped after the manner bv them
prescribed, commended their children
for passing by the place when ''ve
fanatical men and women" were doing
so ''unchristian an act as to decor
ate with evergreens the place where
they assembled for worship. To their
minds it was little less than going in
league with his Satanic Majesty it
was bravado; it was making some
thing pleasant out of what thev held
to be of most rigorous solemnity.
Those who by persecution had been
driven out from their native land, in
turn were quick to persecute those
who looked through eyes less severely
cold than their own.
How strange would the churches of
to-day look to them could they once
more don their powdered wigs and
return TO proud old Boston town.
Up on fremont street, on a corner
where commercial affairs crowd close
around, where endless throngs of hu-
manitv press close upon each others
steps, they would find Kings Chapel
standing just as it was when they
used to look at its gray stone walls
and wonder why God did not raze it
to the earth. In their eyes it was the
abomination of all denominations the
place in which was perpetrated the
''mummery of the church of Eng
land" In it they saw an enemy to
conquer lest it bind them hand and
foot. Fines, threats of imprisonment,
social ostracism had failed to cool
the ardor of those who, in sailing
across the seas, had brought with
them their love for the ceremonials
of the Mother church. So, in time,
Kings Chapel was dedicated to God.
On two sides are the streets with
their buzz Of life, on the other two
sleep the men and women who walk
ed two hundred years ago where you
and l may walk to-day. No other
church standing in Boston at the time
of the revolution, is still in use for
the purpose of worship. The Old
South Meeting House, repaired after
its wrecking by British troops, stands
a monument of the past, but its con-
gregation long since moved to a fash
| ionahle quarter, and into a modern,
expensive church building. The Old
South was the strictly Puritan church.
Kings Chapel, so called first in hon
or of King William, and later,
| when Americas freedom had been
proclaimed, retaining its name in
honor Of the King of Kings-is al
most unchanged. The same square,
high backed pews, the same towering
reading desk, reached by winding
stairs, the same old sounding board,
| and the organ which Hande's fingers
| brought music from, ere it left Eng
| land in the year 1856, are still in use.
Evergreens threw Puritans into
spasms of indignation two hundred
years ago. What would they say TO
the decorations which make beautiful
the churches of this city this glad
Easter Day?
Flowers, flowers, flowers, every
where, until one wonders if he has
lost his way and wandered into some
tropical garden. Beautiful designs
greet the eye everywhere rare pot
ted plants crowd every inch of spare
room: smilax and star-eyed lilies
twine the columns. If, as some one
has said, FLOWERS ARE Cons |
THoUGHTs,'' the churches are indeed
blessed to-day. "More than hum
dred thousand dollars have been |
spent for flowers for this Easter the
florists say, and they ought to know.
Our cross alone has three hundred |
lilies-and they cost fifty cents each. |
Nor has the expenditure been all for |
decoration purposes. Many of the |
churches give to each child to-day a
growing plant, something to carry |
home and care for and love. Trinity !
alone ordered seven hundred such |
plants. (And here let me say Trini-
tv is child of Kings Chapel; the
overflow of the family when, with its |
children to the seventh generation,
coming home, there was not room for |
all).
Giving to child plant may seem |
hardly worth the trouble to those who |
have yards and gardens, and may be |
whole acres where the daisy and the |
golden rod, the wild anemone and |
the modest little yiolets grow in pro-
fusion. But o, how much it means
to the child who never saw a real
field except those times when, by the
mercy of the open air fund, he went
to the '.big country where real live
COWS stay, an chickens run where
they please"
In Cincinnati, Ohio, there is a
weekly gathering of the poorest of
| the poor women. Those who spend
their lives in crowded tenement hous-
es, and whose brightest anticipations
never reached beyond bare necessi-
ties. A year ago, at the last meet
ing before the summer vacation, one
| of the dozen or more ladies who di-
vide the labor Or taking charge of
and giving religious, hygienic and
general utility instructions at the
meetings, presented each Of the three